Getty Stephen Curry smiles during a game between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets.
When Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve teamed up to bring Superman to the big screen back in 1978, they did so with the tagline, “You’ll believe a man can fly.” The NBA had their own version of that concept a handful of years later when His Airness, Michael Jordan, started doing his thing for the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan couldn’t actually fly, of course, but when he was taking off from the free-throw line or throwing down the cradle dunk at MSG, one could be forgiven for thinking he had discovered some way of cheating Newton’s Law.
It would seem that Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has ascended into the realm of mythmakers as well. On Sunday, the Dubs star went viral for a shooting feat that absolutely could not have been real. And yet, the whole of Twitter saw it and shared it without a second thought because, well… it was Steph.
Alas, reality unfortunately set in later that same evening.
Curry’s Incredible Full Court Shooting Display Debunked?
Just finished a shoot with @stephencurry30, this dude just can’t miss 😳🔥
LA-based video director Ari Fararooy originally posted the above-embedded video, which depicts Curry connecting on a whopping five consecutive heaves to the basket from full-court range.
When Sports Illustrated tweeted the clip out from its @SINow account, it went on to amass several million views in no time flat (as of this writing, the thing has been looped nearly 25 million times). In doing so, it inspired comments like this:
“Why is this man not getting a super max contract?”
“As a former CIA analyst and early internet developer I can assure you this is not edited and 100% real. Steph built different. ”
“This is real you literally see the first ball roll away throughout the video as he prepares to shoot the next one.”
However, a quick perusal of Fararooy’s other videos makes it clear that his editing skills may just surpass his abilities on the camera. The videographer’s site and social media profiles are full of exquisitely-constructed fake clips, like this gem with Tom Brady and Julian Edelman.
If that wasn’t enough to disprove the footage, though, the Associated Press’ Janie McCauley confirmed the Steph vid as fake with the Warriors a few hours after it was posted.
We should probably thank her for getting to the bottom of it, too, because, again… this is Steph we’re talking about. Even now, there will probably be some who continue to believe a man can hit five full-court shots in a row without batting an eye.
Wiggins Grounded for Pacers Game
Andrew Wiggins just had what might be the best game of his pro hoops career to date. In 34 minutes of play against the Houston Rockets on Saturday, the former No. 1 pick scored 36 points on 14-of-19 shooting while knocking down a career-high eight three-point shots.
Fans will have to wait for the baller to take flight again, however. As of the NBA’s official injury report for 3:30 pm ET on gameday, Wiggins has been downgraded from questionable to out due to right adductor tightness.
Wiggins has appeared in 22 games for the Dubs this season, averaging 19.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. He’s also connecting on a career-best 45.0% of his triples.